This is a daily tally of all the New Era caps I own, wear and pay tribute to the long history of teams and players who have donned the cap before me. Almost every hat I own has a special marking recognizing players, stats or special events within the history and era of the team and style I sport. It's a mix of fun and history as presented through my eyes and mind because I love the game so much, and wish to honor those who have played before as I cheer for those of the present.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

February 16- Montreal Expos

To get a full sense of how last year started for me be sure
to read this first. http://beardtobefeared.blogspot.com/2012/02/kid.html

It’s the original post I had before I went to Arizona for the MLB Fan Cave final audition.

It’s amazing how much I’ve grown as a person in the last 366
days. On February 15, 2012 I was just a happy-go-lucky 29-year-old kid, bound
for bigger and better things as my campaign for the MLB Fan Cave had been going better than
expected. After doing one TV interview with the local Fox/CBS affiliate in Eugene my story had been
picked up by all of the major sports Web sites (Yahoo!, Deadspin, ESPN,
NBCSports, etc.), and I was quickly making a name for myself throughout the
baseball community. As great of a feeling as it was that I was almost
guaranteeing my entrance into the Fan
Cave, none of it really
seemed to matter by the afternoon of February 16. Gary Carter, my childhood
idol and inspiration for my path into baseball had passed away.

It was pretty much a for sure thing that I would be writing
about this hat today, as it is not only a year later from Carter’s passing,
it’s also one of the more important hats that I own. From the Montreal Expos
first season in Major League Baseball in 1969 through the end of the 1991
season the team donned this amazing, and truly iconic hat. It was one of the
first of its kind; a pinwheel of colors which also captured the spirit of the
city in which the franchise was founded. For those who don’t know the name
Expos comes from the 1967 World’s Fair which was dubbed Expo 67, and is in fact
the most successful World’s Fair of the 20th century in regard to
attendance and number of countries who participated. As a kid the only time I
ever really got to watch the Expos on TV was whenever TBS played the Atlanta
Braves games in which they played throughout the season. Aside from that, the
Expos cards were always my favorite to collect because they had the most
interesting players and colors. Despite being an avid Oakland Athletics fan, I
quickly developed a love for the Expos which I justified as my National League
team. I wouldn’t be until I was 14-year-old that I would finally purchase an
Expos cap, this one to be precise.

This is the first fitted cap I’ve ever owned, and truly the
inspiration for my love of New Era Caps. More importantly, this is around the time
when the internet really began to take off, and I was finally able to watch
Gary Carter in some Expos highlights, as opposed to trying to recreate a play
from his career based on the assortment of Carter Expos cards I owned. You see,
the first time I ever saw Carter in action was during the 1986 World Series as
a member of the New York Mets. I understood that he had played on a different
team because of his baseball cards, but never got to enjoy it the way that my
elders and the fine people of Montreal
got to experience. In my lifetime I was only fortunate enough to see Carter
play live once, but as a member of the San Francisco Giants, which has always
left a sour taste in my mouth. But the most important thing that I value about
this hat is that I bought it while the team still existed.

#4001- This number actually represents me. Like Montreal, I was
heartbroken when the players strike ended the 1994 season for the Montreal
Expos. If you don’t remember, the team had gone 74-40 in their first 114 games,
and were primed to not only win their second division title (1981 being their
only), but most analysts were saying the team was the outright favorite to win
the World Series. Being 11-year-old, I didn’t really have a full understanding
of what was going on. All I knew is that it was over. As years followed the
Expos had difficulty keeping their talent; Larry Walker, Pedro Martinez,
Marquis Grissom and Moises Alou all moved on to greener pastures, and the
attendance at Olympic Stadium dipped to an average of 4000 fans per game. Therefore,
even though I never attended a single Expos game in person, I watched all of
them after the ’94 season on whatever channel would play them. I am fan #4001,
and I never stopped supporting the team until they packed up and moved to Washington, D.C.;
a move which I will forever be upset about.

#8- It wasn’t until his passing that I put hi number on this
cap. I’m still not sure how I was able to keep it together, as this is the only
hat I’ve ever marked with tears streaming down my face. I never met Gary
Carter, but from every article I read, and every time I saw him on TV, I could
tell that he was one of the most genuine human beings the world had ever known.
His smile radiated, and his hard work and determination motivated others,
especially a three-year-old kid living in Stockton,
California. When Carter passed I
cried almost as hard as when I found out the news that my best friend had been
killed when I was 19-years-old. I’ve always been an extremely emotional person;
however, this was one of the few times I had ever been truly inspired to do
better for as many people as possible. With the Fan Cave
only a few weeks away, I couldn’t think of a better platform to be able to
inspire kids and spread my love of the game in the way that Carter inspired me.

It started in Phoenix during
Day 1 of the Fan Cave auditions. I’ve always been a
rather superstitious person, so I made sure to pack the one hat that I felt
most comfortable wearing throughout my trip. I got a lot of questions from the
other candidates and executives about it, as I was supposed to be the
representative of the Oakland
A’s. Every answer I gave consisted primarily of me pointing to the number on my
hat and saying, “I’m a bigger fan of him.” Most people got it, or so I thought.
Our first task was an “elevator pitch” to the suits of MLB, which is basically
a 60 second reason why they should take us. I only needed 58 seconds, but every
word that came out of my mouth felt as if every baseball fan who couldn’t be
there took over my body. I never used the word “deserve,” I used the word
“earned,” but most important, I talked about all of the things that made the
game great… al the while with #8 on top of my head. The rest of the day
consisted of killing it at MLB trivia and singing in public for the first time
since I was 13-years-old. I don’t think I’ve ever been so “on” in all my life.

When I went to New York as
one of the nine finalists for the Fan
Cave I had said
publicly that I would honor Gary Carter when I first walked in, but that
didn’t come without its moments of controversy. All eight of the other Cave
Dwellers had work the gear of the team they were representing, while I opted to
wear a Mets Gary Carter Player-T along with an Expos cap. This was the first
time I realized that no one ever listened to a word I said. When we were
finally allowed inside I dropped my hooded sweatshirt, showing off my Carter
shirt. People finally started to get it, but not until I wrote this on the top
of one of chalkboard pillars…

In early April I was finally able to meet Dave Kaufman, a
radio personality in Montreal
who I became good friends with after a late night of boozery and Montreal Expos
chatter.

Dave had given me an open invitation to visit and stay with
him in Montreal after I was done with the Fan Cave, something we both had
chalked up to taking place some time in 2013. Little did either of us know that
I was going to be the first person axed. So, at the end of July I made my way
out to take him up on his word. I stayed with him for a week and he was kind
enough to tell me stories of all the Expos games he attended throughout his
life, and even took me to the stadium which the Expos called home from
1977-2004. We had only planned on taking exterior shots, but lucky for us, someone
had left the doors unlocked…

Throughout the week Dave and I talked about how the team’s
departure affected the city. Almost every day in which I wore an Expos hat we
were greeted with praise from the locals, but I never stopped any of them to go
into more detail; a move I truly regret. From what I had gathered, the team was
still reeling from the loss of their team, especially in the wake of the
Washington Nationals having a very successful season. One of the things that Dave and I made sure to do was visit Cooperstown and the MLB Hall of Fame. It was the first
time I had ever visited the museum, and I of course couldn’t think of a better
hat to rock than this one.

When I visited Washington,
D.C. I happened to be there for
when the Nationals started a three game series against the Mets. The first day
happened to be “throwback” day. This made perfect for the fact that I was all
ready going to wear my Expos game, but it was especially weird when the
Nationals decided to honor the Senators, as opposed to the actual past. So, I
made sure be that representative. I even tried (unsuccessfully) to move the
team back to Montreal…

I think if there’s one thing I’m most proud of over this
last year it’s that I never lost myself. My mission over the last year was to
be an inspiration to the next generation of baseball fans, much in the same
light that Carter was to me. Despite having a short run in the Fan Cave
I can honestly say that it was a success. I visited 27 of 30 stadiums and
treated fans to tickets and good conversation, all the while I stopped and
talked to every fan who recognized me and wanted to chat. I met my girlfriend,
Angie Kinderman, during my stop in Miami,
and I got to be there for almost every big moment the A’s had this season
including their miraculous run to win the American League West title. Despite
all the hardships I faced on the road, as well as the coldness I’ve received
from MLB since my exile, I can still look at this hat and smile like Carter at
all of the great, and amazing things I’ve done. Thank you Gary; everything I’ve become is because of
the drive and passion you gave every day of your life. I will go and do
likewise until my final breath.

About Me

My name is Benjamin Christensen and I am a recent graduate of University of Oregon in Eugene. I have two Bachelor's Degrees in News/Editorial Journalism and Magazine Journalism with a minor in English. I've been writing ever since I was a kid, mostly doing creative writing, but I've been going strong since I was 15 when I was able to land an interview with Grant Hill of the Detroit Pistons for the high school newspaper I was working for in Bakersfield, California. From that moment of awesomeness I knew that doing something that involved writing and sports was my way in life.
I am probably best known for being a cast member of Season 2 of the MLB Fan Cave. You know, the awesomely bearded guy with all the tattoos. I have an in depth knowledge and perspective on baseball and love to immerse myself into the culture of the game with the fans, players and newcomers.